Stampede hysterical about classic rock act

The Greeley Independence Stampede poured a little sugar on its summer concert lineup by signing 1980s hard rock act Def Leppard along with Hank Williams Jr. and George Thorogood.

The younger crowd might know Def Leppard from a recent wireless phone commercial (“pour some shook up ramon”), but the rest will know the heavy metal band for its hits “Pour Some Sugar On Me,” “Photograph” and “Rock of Ages.”

The Stampede is known for bringing classic rock bands to play a show once a year, but generally those bands are 1970s acts, not hair metal. Even so, Def Leppard was one of the biggest bands of the ’80s with its power pop sound.

The band’s “Hysteria” album in 1987 sold at least 10 million and issued a half-dozen hits, and 1983’s “Pyromania” was probably as responsible as any album for sparking the metal craze in the mid-to-late 1980s.

“It’s a little bit different, but it does fit in that classic rock realm of things,” said Kyle Holman, director of marketing for the Stampede. “We’re never afraid to mix things up, and we’ve got nothing but people excited about that concert so far.”

Hank Williams Jr. gives the Stampede a classic country act. He’s known for hits such as “All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight” that was redone for the “Monday Night Football” theme.

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“We haven’t had a classic kind of guy since Kenny Rogers two years ago,” Holman said. “We’re hoping he’ll fit that bill for us.”

A more traditional classic rock act for the Stampede, George Thorogood, will open for Williams. Thorogood’s roadhouse rock sound spawned such hits as “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer,” “Move it on Over” and, of course, “Bad to the Bone.”

Thorogood and Williams Jr. have worked together many times and have recorded some tracks together.